North Korea claims it has final approval for nuclear attack on US

The North Korean army claimed Wednesday that it has final
approval to launch a nuclear strike against the United States.

Agence France-Presse reported
that the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a statement Thursday
that it was formally notifying Washington that U.S. threats would be “smashed
by … cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means.”

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"The merciless operation of [our] revolutionary armed
forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified," said the
statement, published by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The comments from Pyongyang are the latest in a series of
threats against both the United States and South Korea, as tensions have
ratcheted up in the Korean Peninsula in recent weeks.

This is not the first time North Korea has threatened to
strike the United States with a nuclear attack. Pyongyang, however, does not yet have
the capability to launch a nuclear weapon toward U.S. soil, and most experts
say the country is still years away from possessing the technology to do so.

Nonetheless, the Pentagon has taken several steps in
response to the North Korean threats.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon deployedthe Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), an anti-ballistic missile systemto Guam in what was described as a “precautionary move” to
counter the North Korean threats. Last month, Hagel announced the United States would
deploy 14 additional ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska.

The military has also moved two Aegis-class destroyers
toward the peninsula and flown stealth B-2 bombers, B-52s and F-22s into South
Korea as part of joint military exercises.

In addition to its rhetorical threats, North Korea has cut
lines of communication with the South and, on Wednesday, shut down a joint
industrial operation on the border.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that the North
Korean threats and actions in the past few weeks present a “real and clear
danger and threat.”

“We have to take those threats seriously,” Hagel said in
response to an audience question after a speech Wednesday. “I think we have
measured, responsible, serious responses to those threats.”